for GDR

[Azure]

How dare you come here and ask Dagger to leave! Dagger has been around here a hell of a lot longer than you think, any AEF'er who's been around the block respects him and his view. You may disagree with him, but don't run him down on my watch.

Sorry, PMS or just too much sun.

[Mitch Cronin]

Quite right again Dagger. The shrinkage has eliminated the shortage, however we are still not experiencing a surplus in this country, and unless the shrinkage continues for quite some time, I doubt we will.

Go to any school yard and ask kids if they'd like to be a pilot when they get older and you'll find a lot of them would.... but ask how many would like to be an aircraft mechanic and there'll be a different story. Most folks don't even know we exist. There's certainly no glory here. Sometimes we even dissappear completely in the press; "the machinists and baggage handlers" said one paper recently... or simply, "ground workers". You ever see little kids pretending to be "ground workers" when they play?

The pre-2001 forecasts had shown a steadily increasing shortage beginning to create trouble in North America in about 2005. Our numbers are still declining, as attrition out-paces the rate of new entrants, and I'd be guessing that disparity has likely increased quite a bit since 09/11/2001 as well. So perhaps the "trouble" will show up a little later, but it will show.

You, as an interested investor, and probably in the capacity of your primary income generating field, need to know that you're barking up the wrong tree if you think we're in for permanent pay cuts. We aren't overpaid. You may well be able to point to other folks in the airline business who are overpaid and will be taking cuts, but we aren't in that boat at all. The difference between now and the rest of the history of aircraft maintenance is, for one thing, airplanes have become a lot more complex, and we know our value now, for another.

All this complexity being built into todays flying machines enables them to do some wonderful things very efficiently, and much of it also requires some very precise maintenance... Even the bloody toilets in todays aircraft are riddled with technology that would boggle the mind of an aircraft mechanic from the 50's. And he was probably also underpaid anyway.

If you build fancy elevators, you'll have to get some well trained folks to fix them. And, son-of-a-gun, those guys that fix elevators are paid rather well. More than us in fact. And how 'bout those folks that fix your dishwasher?... And the plumbers, electricians, pipe fitters, tool and die makers, sheet metal workers, etc., etc. .... None of whom ever have to sign their name to a document saying, in essence, thousands of people can bet their lives on their work.... And probably all of whom have better working conditions.

No Dagger... Look elsewhere when you talk about permanent changes to this industry. We know we're still underpaid. Denial? Bogey at 12:00!... oh wait, that's just you in the mirror.

Cheers,

Mitch

[Mitch Cronin]

I've been carefully trying to avoid that issue, but you may have noticed I used the word "permanent", and intentionally so.

[tsgas]

It's not the news media that has it wrong ,its the IAM for grouping the AME's and ramp rats together.So as a group,these employees are overpayed. The AME's however are not the ones that are the problem.

[Mitch Cronin]

And you come back to reminding me what I spoke up for, and that is to point out that the fact that we AME's are underpaid is by no means a "past issue"! It may require some shelving, but not forgetting.

....but it's getting pretty hard to care about anything other than family, friends and the folks at risk in Iraq.